Blood Over the Moon
by Ball o' 9
Summary: -Dead Story-
1. Chapter 1

~Chapter 1~

He didn't know what was happening, it was almost like he was in a trance. Running through the forest as daylight began to fade; he was slowly losing his mind. Where was he going, why was he acting like this? Looking around he at least knew where he was, The Valley of Avalar. The valley was calm and peaceful, nothing seemed out of place. He never had the chance to take in the scenery as his head began to pound.

"What is happening to me?" the pain was agonizing, his whole body felt like it was on fire. The dragon reared back and roared, whatever bit of his mind that was left was now gone.

His expression contorted into a twisted smile, he scanned the area underneath him. Without speaking another word he leaped of the cliff. He quickly approached a lone village, before anyone could notice him; the village was rocked by an explosion. The villagers stared in horror at the black dragon standing before them. Laughing at the top of his lungs, he tore through one of the villagers. They attempted to fight back, but it was pointless he was unrelenting.

Fire and Darkness surrounded the area; any cheetah that got even a few feet away was burnt to a crisp. Throughout the fight the screams of women and children were unnoticed; the warriors were too focused on killing the threat. They had no other choice but to band together and overpower him, every cheetah rushed at him yelling as loud as they could. The dragon heard it in their cries, they were weak and hopeless. He knew their plan, gathering all of his strength, he performed a shadow fury.

When it was over he scanned the area, nothing, he had killed every last cheetah. He was about to leave when he heard a sound.

"Why?"

He turned around to see a young cheetah, covered in blood, tears running down her face. The dragon smiled, running his tail through her neck. That was it, another village in ruins, all because of him. Even as scanned the area looking at all of the corpses, not one thought of remorse ever entered his mind. Looking towards the sky, he noticed the position of the moon; it was still high in the sky. However he didn't want to take any chances he knew what would happen if he stayed here until dawn. The black dragon crept away into the shadows of the forest, blending in with the darkness.

* * *

A purple dragon stood in the plaza of a ruined village, grimacing at the burnt corpses. He looked around at the others with him; they all shared the same expression as him.

"These murders are becoming commonplace Terrador, and yet there is little we can do to stop them." The young dragon looked towards the voice; it was Cyril the Ice Guardian.

"What can we do Cyril there is no pattern to these murder, even then not all of the guardians are helping in this search." The two dragons looked at the purple dragon as a large frown appeared on his face.

"Well I can understand our lack of a fire guardian; however this doesn't excuse Volteer for slacking off." Cyril sighed.

What was Volteer doing, he should be helping them investigate the murderer. He's locked himself inside the temple and has hardly talked since the murders started. The young dragon wasn't surprised; most people have kept to themselves lately.

"Spyro." When he heard the voice he spun around to see Cyril standing impatiently tapping his paw. These murders were starting to get on Spyro's nerves; he wasn't interested in dealing with Cyril.

"Yes master, what's wrong this time?" Over the past couple months Spyro had developed an attitude and he was noticeably irritable. Cyril was concerned for the young dragon, but he knew they needed to find the killer.

"I know all of this work is taxing, but if this continues it could lead to insecurity among the people of Warfang." He knew this, he heard the exact same thing the last twenty times. Looking over Cyril's shoulder he saw Terrador heading his way along with the rest of the dragons and cheetahs helping with the search.

"I hate to say it Cyril, but the search has been inconclusive again, this killer is leaving no logical trail."

Cyril looked at Terrador for a second before looking down at the ground and sighing. "I guess we don't have a choice we have been here for days hunting shadows."

Spyro felt the effects of constantly searching for the killer; this wasn't the worst of it. There was one time they were so sure they had found something and only ended up running around in circles. For nearly a week they chased the killer around, only to find out hundreds died while they wasted time.

Terrador turned to Spyro, "Go head back to the camp and inform everyone to pack up."

"Well it's about time" Spyro sighed. He moved as fast as he could to get back to camp and see the others, while Terrador stared at him concerned.

"Terrador old friend, what could possibly be on your mind?" Cyril wasn't the best at guessing thoughts, but he knew it was related to Spyro.

He looked at him and sighed, "Barely a few months ago Spyro and Cynder defeated the Dark Master, and now we're forcing them into another incident." His voice rose a bit. "I know we wouldn't have won the war without them, but don't you think they deserve to live their own lives?"

Cyril shook his head, looking at him square in the eyes. "Yes, yes I know they deserve to enjoy the peace, but Terrador we both know we need their help with this incident." He groaned. "We both know that SOMEONE isn't doing anything to help us."

Terrador eyes began to narrow. "Cyril, I don't think Volteer would do nothing as innocents die, he has to be doing something productive right now."

"That walking dictionary has been locked in his room for the past few weeks, the only time he left it was to go to the library, and he even has his food delivered to his room!" Terrador snickered at Cyril's ranting. "What could possibly be so amusing, old friend?

Terrador looked at him smiling. "Oh it's nothing, just remembering old times."

Cyril couldn't help but smile himself. "It's been awhile since we last sat down and had a simple chat, I can only wish we resolve this incident as soon as possible."

Terrador's smile began to wane. "Indeed, but we should be careful not to push the young dragons, Spyro seems more irritable than usual."

Cyril's smile completely disappeared. "Excuse me are you telling me you haven't noticed?" Cyril spat out. "He's been like this ever since he returned to Warfang, and his attitude always seems to be directed towards me." Cyril began to growl.

Terrador was surprised, he knew Cyril could rant if he wanted to, but the way he spoke caught him off guard. Cyril's rants were usually humorous and were hardly ever serious, but he was acting like he was actually mad at Spyro. "Calm down Cyril, I can imagine he's just tired of playing hero, he's not the only one who wants to relax and enjoy the peace."

Cyril still wasn't convinced, ever since Spyro and Cynder returned; Spyro was acting hostile towards everyone, even his brother Sparx. With most people he just gave them the cold shoulder or shooting them a glare, but Cyril was a different story. He didn't know what it was that made Spyro dislike him so much, but the more those two were around each other, the more uneasy everyone around them was. At first it was just like everyone else, Spyro simply ignored him or growled at him, but the hatred between the two would only grow. It was one day, during an argument of theirs, something happened that permanently created a wall between them.

_"What do you think you're doing young dragon?" Cyril questioned Spyro as walked out of the temple. Spyro groaned and ignored the Ice Guardian, instead continuing down the road into town. However, before he could get to the gates, Cyril blocked his path._

_"Get out of my way." Cyril noticed that Spyro seemed more tense than usual, but he thought nothing of it._

_"Spyro get back in the temple, with the way you've been acting around other dragons, we don't want to take any risks. Spyro paused, giving Cyril a heavy, piercing glare that made him shiver slightly. He shook it off and reached out to grab Spyro, but before he could even touch him he felt a strange tingling feeling. He looked at one of his legs; there was a large spike of ice through it. Before he could say anything, the pain finally registered as clenched his bleeding leg. Looking up he saw Spyro frantically running through town, towards the setting sun._

_"Cyril!" He turned around to see his friend Terrador shocked at the sight. "Are you alright, what happened!?"_

_Cyril looked down towards the ground, taking one glance at the ice speared in his leg. "It was an accident, I was…training and the ice ricocheted and hit me in the leg."_

_Terrador nodded his head. "Alright let's get you back inside and heal wound."_

_Cyril couldn't say anything else, he was too shocked to. There was one thing that was running through his mind, it was only one word._

_Why?_

Ever since then, Cyril rarely said a word to Spyro unless he had to. Even if he wanted to speak to Spyro, the young dragon never looked him in eye after that day.

"Cyril?" Cyril snapped out of his thought to see Terrador still patiently standing the same spot.

"I wish to be alone for now old friend." Cyril turned away from Terrador, walking back to his tent.

Terrador could only stare as his friend slowly walked away, as if in deep thought. "Why are they acting like this, I thought after Malefor was defeated everything would return to normal." Terrador sounded broken. "Just like they were before, when we were children." Terrador was so busy talking to himself he didn't hear the sound of crunching leaves behind him.

"Master Terrador we're ready to leave." Terrador turned around to see a young fire dragon, almost Spyro's age.

"Alright Flame, give me a minute to gather my belongings." The young dragon bowed to the guardian and left for the camp.

Terrador looked towards Cyril's tent and sighed; he turned away and walked towards his own tent. "This is only the beginning isn't it?" Terrador growled. "Damn the Ancestors!"

* * *

Authors Note:

Welcome to Hell

My first fanfiction, oh god, let's see how this nightmare ends. I'll say this right now for everyones sake, don't expect quality or quantity. I'm not a very good writer and I'm also not a very fast writer. This fanfic will probably start of slow as hell for all I know, but doesn't mean I won't try. God this author's note is terrible...anyways I appreciate any criticism and hope you enjoy the story!


	2. Chapter 2

~Chapter 2~

Spyro was moving through the village as fast as he could, he wanted to get back to camp and leave this mess behind. Why was he forced to look for this murderer, because he was the purple dragon? He thought it was all over the moment they stepped out of the mountain. He thought Cynder could finally live a normal life with other dragons and he could go back to the swamp with Sparx. He was so deep in his thoughts he didn't notice the dragon in front of him, by the time he did it was too late. He ran into the dragon at full speed, knocking both of them over.

Spyro got up, not even looking at the dragon, and muttered a simple apology. "Sorry." It was barely audible and sounded rushed, but Spyro didn't care. He just wanted to get back to the only person he cared about in this camp and leave. He ran off towards the large tent in the distance.

The red fire dragon got up and stared at the purple dragon. "Some hero, he just slams into me and then runs off." The fire dragon shook his head. "I guess it's not important, what is important is telling Terrador that everyone's packed up." The dragon took one last look at Spyro before walking away.

Spyro finally reached the tent; compared to the others it wasn't any different. There was one defining feature though, while the others were dark tan, this one was pure black. Stepping inside, he saw that nobody was here. "Cynder told me she would be in here right now."

"If you're looking for the evil-she dragon, she's at your tent." Spyro recognized the snarky voice; he turned around and saw his dragonfly brother Sparx.

"Why is she there…actually no, a better question is why are YOU here?" Spyro was not amused by Sparx's snide attitude.

"Oh, so you don't want to see the brother you spent your whole life with." Sparx stared at Spyro with big puppy dog eyes.

Spyro groaned; he wasn't in the mood to deal with Sparx's sob stories. He exited the tent to get away from that headache; unfortunately Sparx had followed him outside. "Listen Sparx, it's not like I hate you, but after dealing with you for fourteen long years I think I deserve a break.

Sparx flew up to Spyro with a smirk on his face. "Actually it's been eleven years since we sealed away for three of them." Spyro wasn't interested in hearing anything else about the Night of Eternal Darkness. Everything that happened on that night still haunts his memories.

"Sparx leave me alone, I wish to talk to Cynder in peace." Once again Spyro ignored Sparx and tried to leave, but Sparx got in his way again. He was sick of listening to Sparx; he bared his fangs and growled at him.

Sparx eyes widened and he immediately backed away from Spyro, the dragon glared at him before walking away. "Jeez, what's wrong with him?"

* * *

"This place is a mess." Inside of a purple tent stood a black dragoness, looking around at the cluttered room filled with maps, evidence, and an occasional love note. She picked up one of the notes and stared at it for a second before crumpling it up and throwing it aside. "I wonder if he ever throws these away."

"Why bother, there's too many of them." The black dragoness jumped and turned around to see her good "friend" Spyro. The purple dragon immediately began to smirk. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you like that Cynder."

Cynder blushed and began to pout. "Spyro you idiot, don't sneak up on me like that!" Spyro couldn't help but laugh at Cynder's childish response.

Spyro wasn't the only one who changed, in the months after Malefor's defeat the two dragons were slowly being introduced into society. At first Cynder was terrified that the people would judge her for her actions. While they did blame her for a while, it wasn't long until other began accepting her. Cynder herself began to slowly open up and change, she became less resentful and more cheerful. She ran around Warfang laughing and smiling, enjoying the childhood she deserved.

Cynder's life was filled with happiness, but then the murders started. Cynder thought it was over, she thought she could finally live her own life. She outright refused to leave everything she had in Warfang. The Guardians literally had to drag her out of the city. If there was anyone who deserved to not be a part of this it was Cynder. After everything she went through, she deserved to live a happy life.

Spyro gazed at Cynder, trying to look hurt. "Oh I'm an idiot…..I guess you don't want me around." He sighed as he turned around to leave, unbeknown to Cynder, Spyro began to smirk. He began to mutter under his breath. "3…..2…..1….." He then felt someone's wing on his back. "Bingo." He spun around to look at Cynder only to see a large yellow face. Spyro jumped back in shock and stared at the large yellow dragon, he could hear Cynder giggling like a hatchling.

The elder dragon chuckled as he stared at the Spyro. "Were you expecting something else young dragon?" Spyro regained his composure and smiled at the two dragons.

"Well I certainly didn't expect you to be behind me Volteer; I thought you were still back at Warfang." Spyro's smile quickly faded into a puzzled expression. "Why are you here Volteer, not to sound rude, but you've kept yourself locked in your room for more than a month?"

A large smile spread across Volteer's face, he lifted his head up high and opened his mouth. "Well you see while you were busy running in circles I was employing, exploiting, harnessing…I ah yes utilizing my collection of ancient, archaic scrolls to research a strange phenomenon."

The two young dragons looked at each other with confused looks before Spyro turned to Volteer. "What kind of strange phenomenon?"

"If you're so curious then tell me, haven't you noticed the strange lunar anomaly?" Cynder looked at the two dragons with a confused look.

"I need my professional Volteese translator here." She giggled as Spyro rolled his eyes.

"He's saying there's something wrong with the celestial moons." Spyro still didn't understand why this was important. "Why are you so concerned about it is it serious?"

Volteer nodded. "It could be quite serious if my notes are correct, but it would be best if everyone heard it." Volteer exited the tent, most likely to search for the others.

Cynder looked more confused than ever, and Spyro couldn't blame her, they didn't exactly get any information on what was happening to the moons. "I'm sure Volteer will explain everything soon Cynder."

She smiled at Spyro. "I know he will, let's go catch up with him. Spyro nodded walked beside Cynder as they exited the tent. Cynder began to move a little closer to Spyro, he noticed this and blushed. She liked being next to Spyro, even if he was colder and more bitter than he used to be. They were good friends…..only friends.

_The day they defeated Malefor was one of the happiest days of Cynder's life, her cruel master was dead, the world was saved, and the dragon she loved was safe. She stared at the purple dragon with tears in her eyes; one might have thought she was in anguish if it wasn't for the large smile on her face. She was flying with Spyro in skies above Avalar, the two in perfect harmony. Everything was perfect, except for the fact that Spyro didn't remember the words Cynder said after their final battle._

_It didn't matter, what was important was that they were safe. Months passed, Cynder was slowly being accepted by the people, there was a big festival celebrating Malefor's defeat, and any of his army that was left was being stamped out. Of course there were small things like thefts, grublin attacks, and pirates but nothing too serious. Avalar was finally at peace and it strangely made Cynder happy, she could finally live a normal life._

_Cynder felt she was ready to tell Spyro her true feelings, she's was ready to confess her love. She found the purple dragon sitting outside the temple staring at the dusky sky; he turned around to face Cynder. "Uh...hello Cynder, what are you doing out at this hour?" He sounded tense, there was something else she felt, but she couldn't put her finger on it._

_"I wanted to tell you something, something really important." She looked at down at the ground blushing, she took a peek at Spyro's face and saw it was unchanged._

_"What do you want to tell me?" Cynder knew this was it; she couldn't hold it in anymore, she knew she had to say it._

_"Spyro I love…"_

_"I'm sorry." Cynder stopped when she heard those words; her smile disappeared, replaced with an uneasy feeling in her stomach. "I'm sorry Cynder I can't love you."_

_Cynder froze, she could have sworn her heart stopped, all of her dreams were shattered instantly. "Why…why can't you love me Spyro, give me one good reason!?" She knew she sounded like she was losing it, and inside it felt like she really was going crazy._

_"I want you to live a normal life; I'm never going to be normal Cynder." "To me being the purple dragon is a curse, I don't want you to have to deal with another purple dragon." What was he saying, he's acting like he's going to be like Malefor!_

_"If this is about what Malefor said then it's not true, you're nothing like him!" Cynder couldn't stop herself from crying. Why wasn't Spyro listening to her?_

_"Even if I am nothing like him, not everyone is going to believe that, I just don't want you caught up in something that's related to me." Cynder gave up; she looked down at the ground and cried. She felt something touch her, she looked up to see Spyro's wing holding her. "That doesn't mean I hate you, you're one of my closest friends, I couldn't have made it this far without you._

_She stared at Spyro; she couldn't say anything so instead she sat with Spyro and stared at the sky with him. Eventually she began to fall asleep, she felt someone pick her up and carry her back into the temple. She was placed in her bed and opened her eyes one last time to see Spyro smiling as he kissed her forehead. "Goodnight Cynder." She could hear the door gently close, even after everything that happened; a small smile appeared on her face._

Even days after the incident it still hurt to remember the rejection, but in the end she forgave Spyro. He was one of her closest friends, she couldn't hate him. "I think we caught up with Volteer and the other uh oh…" Cynder snapped out of her thoughts as she saw Cyril once again arguing with Volteer.

"Volteer when we said we wanted your help, we didn't ask for your worthless musty old scrolls." Cyril had a smug grin on his face, while Volteer looked mildly irritated he was still smiling.

"Why you self-centered, egotistical, conceited…I um…."

Terrador sighed and shook his head. "Cyril this is no time for your egotistical rants, right now Volteer has something important to tell us." Spyro and Cynder walked towards the Guardians.

Spyro looked at Volteer with concern. "You said there was something wrong with the moons, well what is it?"

The smile on Volteer's face finally disappeared. "This might sound absurd, ludicrous, nonsensical, preposterous, farcical…"

"GET TO THE POINT!" Everyone screamed at Volteer.

Volteer sighed, his face becoming serious. "It's the celestial moons, one of them is fading away."


	3. Chapter 3

~Chapter 3~

"Jade, the green celestial moon is disappearing." Volteer looked around the area noticing the bitter look from Cyril.

"Unbelievable, do you honestly think we'll believe such an obvious lie." Cyril scoffed "You lock in your room all day and sit on your rear reading your books." Cyril continued to mock Volteer. "While we do all of the dirty work, you taint the air with your ignorance and think up excuses."

However Volteer's expression didn't change, Spyro was surprised by how calm he was being. "It's amusing that you would call me ignorant, considering you arrogant nobles could care less about the people beneath your inessential feet." Cyril was taken aback by Volteer's comment; he gnashed his teeth and growled at him. "What's wrong, did I strike a nerve in little charitable Cyril, I assume you didn't expect my "ignorance" to be of use beyond simplistic rambling."

"You think you know everything…what could some lowborn rat ever know!?" Cyril glared at Volteer. "You never deserved to be a Guardian, your combat skills pale in comparison Terrador and I." Cyril smirked. "I guess that's why you have the least authority as a Guardian."

Volteer laughed, how could he laugh after everything Cyril just told him? It didn't take long for Spyro find out. "It's hardly fair to ridicule my abilities, let's not forget your crime blue blood." Cyril's eyes widened upon realization, his worry was only amplified by Volteer's smirk. "Don't forget how your _late _father bribed the previous Guardians into appointing you as the Ice Guardian."

Spyro feared what would have happened next if it wasn't for Terrador intervening. "That's enough out of both of you; we were returning to Warfang perhaps you could help Volteer."

Volteer turned to Terrador with a smile on his face. "Ah, I'd love to help; we can finish this talk about my discoveries later." He tilted his head towards Cyril. "When we're around less irritable dragons, isn't that right Cyril."

Apparently Volteer did strike a nerve, as Cyril refused to say a word to him, Terrador then nudged Volteer. "We have business to attend to Volteer, are you coming or not?"

"Of course I am, come along now Cyril we're leaving." He grinned at Cyril. "You wouldn't want to be left behind now would you?" Cyril walked by Volteer without saying a word, while the electric dragon kept grinning. "You should run along as well young dragons, after all don't you have a brother Spyro."

"Well…that happened." Spyro didn't know what else to say, after something like that he was a bit dazed.

Cynder looked at Spyro with a worried look. "You think what Volteer said was true?" Spyro cocked his head with a puzzled expression; he still looked a bit out of it. "What Volteer said about the moon, do you think it's true?"

That was enough to knock Spyro out of his daze. "Oh…no of course I don't believe Volteer's stories, on the bright side at least this one didn't put me to sleep."

"Spyro I'm serious, what if Volteer is right and the moon is disappearing." Cynder looked Spyro dead in the eye. "What if something happens, what if Malefor comes back?"

Spyro smiled and draped his wing over Cynder's back. "Trust me Cynder if anything like that happens I'll protect you." He motioned towards the direction the Guardians went in. "Come on, let's go and help the others finish up."

Cynder blushed and stared at Spyro. "Pretty sure they're done already, but it couldn't hurt to look." Together they ran to catch up with the Guardians.

* * *

A young fire dragon panted as he carried multiple weapons on his back, a next to him was a cheetah carrying some scrolls. "C'mon Flame, how you supposed be the new Fire Guardian if you can't lift a couple pieces of iron?" A definite drawl in the young cheetah's voice.

Flame glared at the cheetah. "Says the guy carrying a few papers, why don't you grab one of these?" The cheetah noticed an extra tent being carried by a dragon next to him and grabbed it. "Well what are you waiting for Orchid grab..!" Flame fell to the ground, he got up and groaned. He looked behind him and saw a large folded tent on top of some scattered swords. Seeing Orchid laughing at him made his blood boil, he ran at his friend to tackle him but instead ran into a passing figure.

"I'm sorry I wasn't watching where I was going are you alright!?" When Flame's vision cleared he saw black scaled female dragon standing over him with a concerned look on her face.

"Wait a minute you're…Cynder?" The young fire dragon stared at Cynder neither of them saying a word. Until the two noticed how Cynder was right on top of him, she immediately jumped off of Flame, both of them blushing.

"Congrats Flame you finally got yourself a mate!" Orchid exclaimed while snickering at the same time. The two young dragons blushed even harder, as Flame glared at his friend.

"Shut up Orchid that's Cynder you're talking to here." The young dragon gritted his teeth, embarrassed his friend would humiliate him in front of someone like Cynder.

"You mean that dragon there is the Terror of the Skies?" Cynder cringed after hearing her old title, seeing her obvious discomfort Flame went over to console her. "Hey don't act that that, sides' I know you ain't evil, you helped me before." After hearing that Cynder felt some relief, but she still felt slightly uneasy. "Of course Flame doesn't have any bad feelings towards you, he's been eyeing you up the whole time!"

The two dragons started blushing all over again while Orchid laughed at the two of them. "Shut up Orchid!" Flame yelled at the cheetah as he ran away to catch up to the main group. "That idiot, he always has his head up his ass." Flame sighed. "I'm sorry about what he said earlier, he didn't mean it I swear."

Cynder smiled at him. "I know he didn't mean it, it's no big deal…Flame?" Flame noticed her hesitation with his name and nodded his head. Cynder noticed all of the weapons lying all over the ground before she spotted one on Flame's back. "I'm sorry I knocked all of these all over the place, I'll help you carry some."

"No it wasn't your fault most of them were already on the ground before you got here, and I can carry them myself." She believed Flame could carry all of them, but she still wanted to help regardless.

"I'm going to help, you know that I'm strong enough to carry a few swords and spears." Cynder slowly began to gather various weapons of the ground."

"I know you're strong enough, the fact his I need to be stronger." Cynder stared at him with a confused look, he look pretty strong for a fire dragon his age. "I guess you can carry a few though, if that's what you're in to…"

Cynder gave him a strange look. "What do you mean what I'm in to?" Cynder started grinning at a blushing Flame.

"I-I don't m-m-mean it like that!" Cynder giggled at his nervous stuttering. "You certainly have a dirty mind, I starting to wonder what you're really into." Both of them laughed at Flame's joke as they began to catch up with the others. "So what was going on before you ran into me?"

Cynder chuckled nervously. "This is going to sound stupid, you see Spyro and I were trying to catch up to the Guardians. I had the great idea of having a race to see who could get to them first. Everything was fine and I was in the lead until Spyro decided to zip right past me. I tried to catch up and then I ran in to you…literally."

"Yeah I still have the bruises to prove it, you know you should be a little less violent." Cynder playfully pushed the snickering dragon and gave him a sinister stare.

"Aw…how cute, the big bad Flame scared of little old me." Flame nervously laughed at her comment, but he smiled the whole time. Cynder smiled back at her new friend, but something Orchid said earlier was still on her mind. "I need to ask you about Orchid, what was he talking about when he said I've helped him before, I've never met him before today."

"Don't you remember a couple months ago you and Spyro helped save a cheetah who was trapped in a cave?"

Cynder hardly had to think long about it, she already knew who it was. "Of course I remember Meadow, but I don't see how this has to do with anything…wait are you saying Orchid is…"

"Meadow's younger brother, yep that's exactly what I'm saying." It all made sense to Cynder, that's why Orchid knew she was a good person. It also explained why most of the people she knew that had forgiven her for her actions were cheetahs. "You should have seen the look on his face when he heard that you helped save his brother."

"Okay, that explains that but it doesn't explain why you've forgiven me." Flame turned to her with a smile on his face.

"That's simple you saved my best friend and all of Warfang, you also kinda saved me and my parents at the same time so that's a plus." Cynder could tell by the gratefulness in his voice that he was sincere, she couldn't help but smile back at him. "Uh…is that you were looking for?" He pointed towards the purple dragon and the three older dragons.

"Yeah that's them…thanks for walking with me." The young fire dragon smiled and nodded his head, but before he walked off Cynder blurted out something else. "I'll see you later." Cynder ran off before Flame could say another word to her.

"Yeah…I'll see you later Cynder." He left to catch up with his friend as Cynder ran towards Spyro and the others.

By the time Cynder finally made it to the others it was too late to notice the bane of her existence. "Well where have YOU been evil chicken lizard?"

"Evil…chicken lizard? That's a new one, didn't think you could come up with something that could surprise me." Cynder mocking Sparx with a mock surprised look on her face.

"Sparx! Do you mind?" Spyro snapped bitterly at his brother. "Cynder you've been gone for hours, where have you been!?"

"Hours is defiantly pushing it, and it's not my fault you decided to shoot ahead of me and leave me behind." Cynder pouted. "If you really want to know I ran into another dragon and his friend and we talked a bit."

Spyro quietly growled. "What were you doing with these people Cynder?" Cynder had never seen Spyro stare at her so accusingly before. What was his problem, if he was jealous it was her fault he refused to be more than friends.

"Look I'll tell you later…are we leaving now, I'd like to relax for once rather than run around chasing shadows." Spyro's temper was visibely rising, but once again before anything could happen Terrador intervened.

"Yes were are leaving now and I'd like to not hear another word out of any of your mouths for the rest of the trip back to Warfang, understood?" Everyone sighed and slowly they all gave a collective, yes. "Good, now come along we're wasting daylight."

Cyril was the first to move along with Terrador and Cynder followed the two shortly after. Spyro slowly walked as well, keeping his distance from Cyril and Cynder. Sparx began following his brother, but he was stopped by Volteer. "You Sparx a novel idea would be to watch over that livid dragon you call a brother, he seems to have anger issues."

Sparx glared at Volteer as he walked away and began to follow the others. "Prick." Sparx bitterly mumbled.

* * *

Authors Note:

Well this is strange this story seems a bit…dusty *nervously laughs* I'm sure everyone can understand I was a bit occupied with…uh business…but you guys forgive me right…right?

*cough*

Seriously though, I sincerely apologize to anyone who read this story back in June who has been waiting for Chapter 3. I'm mean most people have probably forgot this story and think I've forgotten it as well. Unfortunately I haven't forgotten about it, I've just been procrastinating so much. I feel terrible for leaving this story on the back-burner. I swear if I don't have a chapter every week it'll be every other week, hell the only reason I got real motivation to continue writing was because of my friend…

*cough*

Oh yeah…and there's an OC, but not just any OC, an OC that isn't some all-important, overpowered, and somehow more convoluted than Spyro self-insert dragon. Nope he's just an ordinary cheetah (I know what a concept).

I'll also be writing responses to reviews down here in the author's note rather than sending a PM to the reviewers. Mostly so everyone can see my response to the review.

Finally sorry if the first part of the chapter sounds a little awkward, there was a gap in-between when i wrote the first 500-600 words and the rest of the chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

~Chapter 4~

"For all the time and effort it took to set up and pack up camp it sure didn't take long to get back to Warfang." Cynder said with a surprised tone to Terrador who had been staring at the city in distance.

A frown slowly spread across the Earth Guardian's face as he stared at the capital of the dragons. "That's what worries me Cynder, these incidences are happening closer and closer to Warfang every day." He knew how impulsive the people of Warfang were, if something were to happen the city would erupt into chaos. "It's why we need to keep the people of this city safe, it's the least we can do to honor his sacrifice."

Cynder could tell who he was talking about and it made her feel guilty all over again. "Yeah I know that, it's what we've been trying to do for the past month." Saying that made her feel guiltier, she looked down at the ground in sorrow. "I feel like I'm not doing enough to help, but every time we find something it crumbles in our claws." Terrador stayed silent, he wasn't going to try to give her false hope. Instead he simply motioned Cynder to follow him back to the others, but before Cynder could follow she heard a bush rustling.

* * *

Cyril was sitting alone while he waited for Terrador to return, he hated how he was always around _that _dragon. He didn't _hate_ Cynder, he just didn't want her to stay around. She wasn't _normal_, then again neither was Spyro _or Volteer_. He proceeded to head towards the cliff that Terrador and Cynder had gone to. Before he could a slightly whinny voice that he recognized far too well. "Hey wait up icicle!"

It was Sparx.

Cyril wanted to ignore the voice and fly away to get away from it, but he knew the second he got caught by Sparx he would never shut up. "What could you possibly want Sparx, can't you see I'm busy?"

"You're busy doing what? You're kind of staring into space, yeah you're so productive." Cyril was already tired of Sparx's snarky attitude.

"It doesn't matter if I'm doing anything or not, I just want some peace and quiet. You being here isn't exactly giving me any."

"Do you have a problem or something, is it about genius over there?" Sparx said pointing over in Volteer's general direction. "You've been acting like a loner lately, I'm mean so has my brother but still you're acting weird."

"You're right I do have a problem with Volteer, but the reason why is something you don't need to know." Sparx was eying him for some odd reason, wasn't the answer good enough? "What I've said what I need to say and that's that."

"No, you still haven't told me why you're acting all strange or even why Volteer is acting strange."

Cyril snarled. "I guess it's because Volteer _slipped_." Cyril looked away from Sparx, refusing to meet his eyes.

Sparx gave him a confused look. "What do you mean he slipped?"

Cyril shook his head. "It's nothing, but don't you dare mention any of this to Volteer or I swear you'll regret it Sparx." Cyril flapped his wing and took off into the air leaving Sparx behind.

Sparx was about to go after him until he saw Terrador heading back down the path he and Cynder went down earlier. Then it hit him Cynder wasn't with him, Terrador saw the concerned look on his face. "Sparx is something the matter?"

"Where's Cynder?"

* * *

Cynder stared at the shrubbery as it shifted and a large blue dragon emerged. Cynder was surprised by the sudden appearance of Cyril. "Cyril, what are you doing here!?"

The older dragon looked around the area and back to Cynder. "Where is Terrador, why are you alone, did something happen!?" He frantically shouted.

Cynder was confused, why was he so worried? "What's wrong with you, Terrador left already and I stayed behind to "investigate" you." Cynder suddenly felt hurt. "I get it you thought I did something to Terrador, thanks for the trust Cyril."

Cyril sighed. "I'm going to be blunt Cynder I really don't trust you, I don't hate you at all it's just…"

"I understand Cyril, and I don't blame you either, if I could I wouldn't trust myself." Cynder still felt hurt, but she would over it, she was used to it. "Although that doesn't explain why you freaking out when you didn't see Terrador, what are you two in love or something?"

Cyril glared at her. "Don't say that ever again." Cyril looked like he was mad, but Cynder could tell it was false anger by the way he stammered.

Cynder smirked. "So is that a yes?"

Cyril groaned. "No it's not a yes, I could never fall in love with a commoner let alone another male." Cyril proclaimed in a conceited tone that made Cynder smile.

"That's the Cyril I'm used to, haven't seen much of him in a while." Those words made him remember what Sparx told him, and caused him to look away from her. "What's wrong, did I say something?"

"No it's not what you said Cynder it's…" Cyril thought of his choice of words for moment. "I want you to understand that war can bring out the worst in people. However it can also cause people to band together with the same ideal even if they are…_incompatible_. When war ends it can calm restlessness that some feel, but those who share same ideal may begin to…_clash_. Feelings that are hidden away by the flames of war can resurface and people go back to the way they were before."

"I understand what you're saying, is that why you and Volteer have been fighting lately?" Cynder knew it wasn't just personality problems that made the two clash.

"Yes it is something like…anyway I imagine Terrador is concerned for you so it would be best if we hurried along." Cyril flew off without saying another word to Cynder. She knew now that something happened between those two.

* * *

"Alright I got an idea we tell Spyro that she uh…disappeared." Terrador shook his head at Sparx's "idea".

"Could you imagine how devastated Spyro would be if we told him Cynder was missing?" The two were currently searching the forested area in search of Cynder.

"Why did you two have to go to this overgrown mess to "clear your mind"?" Sparx was agitated that he had fly through this mess of trees and bushes. Terrador ignored the complaining dragonfly and continued to search for the missing dragon. "You know what I'm just going to get Spyro." Terrador didn't try to stop the dragonfly from leaving.

When he was finally alone he continued to look for the missing dragon, but he could barely see through the thick shrubbery, let alone find an adolescent dragon in it. That's when Terrador noticed something strange, the area seemed to be unnaturally distorted. A few flattened bushes wouldn't normally be that big of a deal, that is until you combine it with torn up trees and whipped landscape. Following upturned dirt and smashed trees he noticed it gradually led out of the small wooded area. "Something big came through here, and this close to Warfang too." Terrador flapped his wings and flew above the tree line. "I need to tell the others about this."

Cynder silently flew behind Cyril, who was also being just as talkative. She was still wondering about what was going between him and Volteer. She finally noticed that Cyril had started to descend and she did the same. The two couldn't even get a moment of peace before they were bombarded by Sparx. "What are doing, don't you know Terrador's been looking for you?" Then the dragonfly turned to Cyril. "Where have you been, did you leave just to have a chat with Black Death over here?"

Cyril was surprised. "Are you saying the moment I left I just missed Terrador?" Sparx nodded his head, Cyril felt like an idiot, especially considering the fact he could have avoided his little "revealing" conversation with Cynder.

"Well since you two know now, I'm going to get as far away from her as possible." Sparx flew off as fast as he could, like he expected Cynder to do something to him. Cynder assumed Cyril was waiting for Terrador to return, so she followed Sparx."

She eventually made back to where the rest of the army was, or rather once was because she couldn't see a single dragon in the area. She was about to run back to tell Cyril before she noticed a small group of dragons and cheetahs standing out in the open. She ran up to the small group and recognized a few of the people in the group. "Hey Flame! Hey Orchid! What happened to everyone else?"

The young fire dragon smiled at his new friend. "Good to see you Cynder. Well you see Volteer lead the rest of the army back to the city, something about wasting time." Well Volteer had a point, they were close to Warfang, what possessed Cynder and Terrador to run off a spend time alone was beyond her.

Cynder actually took the time to look at the group the two friends were pretty much all of the cheetahs were adults and didn't mind her presence. The few dragons in the group were a different story, she could feel their piercing glares. One of the dragons whispered something to Flame and quickly all of them except Flame took off. The cheetahs spoke to the three in some unknown language Cynder didn't even want to try to replicate. Whatever they said must have been something related to "let's go" because Orchid nodded and followed them while waving back to the two dragons. "I guess it's just the two of us."

"That's not a bad thing is it?" Cynder smiled shook her head. "Good I'm glad you don't think I'm some freak."

"That's ironic you think you're out of place and abnormal, trust me I'm weirder than you'll ever be." Then something unexpected happened, Flame moved to Cynder and _nuzzled her!_ Strangely enough she didn't seem to care at all, to her Flame felt comforting. "Aren't you cute, are you trying to get on my good side?"

Flame snickered. "Something like that." Cynder returned his show of affection by licking his cheek. It was hardly romantic, but it was enough to make Flame's face somehow become even redder. "H-H-Heh I had…uh…a feeling you l-l-liked me." Flame couldn't believe it, did Cynder actually like him? It wasn't like she was in a relationship with anyone else.

"Well…I'll have to get to know you better first, but I would like to see you more." Cynder blushed, she couldn't believe she was saying this. At the same time though it felt so right, I'm if Spyro loved her he wasn't showing it.

"S-S-Sure I'd love to talk more..." Flame trailed off as if he was planning on saying something else. "C-Cynder it's just that I think it would be best if we…you know…"

"I don't think I understand what you're saying." Cynder was confused at Flame's nervous stuttering, was he scared to say what he wanted to say? "If you want to say something just say it Flame."

Flame slowly took a deep breath. "I think it would be best if you kept this a secret from Spyro." Cynder was surprised, she opened her mouth to comment on what Flame said, but they were suddenly interrupted.

"Keep what a secret from Spyro?"

* * *

Author's Note:

**WARNING! CLIFFHANGERS INTENSIFY!**

Yay! Another chapter of exposition!

I know there isn't a whole lot of "action" going on right now and trust me I understand that. The next chapter will probably contain MORE exposition. We are getting closer to where the plot in my head begins to pick up, so we got that going for us.

*Gasp* A "love triangle" between Spyro, Cynder, and Flame! Oh wait that's been done before…..too bad.

_In response to htffan951:_ Spyro does seem slightly out of character and it will be explained later in the plot. Sorry if Sparx seemed a bit out of character around the end, I didn't necessarily like that bit after I went back and read it later. I hope his actions in this chapter somewhat fix my little mistake in the last one.


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